The Swordsman in Double Flag Town

A teenage rider makes his way to an isolated town to meet the woman his deceased father arranged for him to marry. Initially dismissed by his betrothed’s family and the villagers, he proves his worthiness when he protects the young woman from an attack, but ends up provoking the wrath of an even more dangerous swordsman. Marking the rebirth and reinvention of the wuxia genre in China, He Ping’s 1991 Western makes the most of the desert setting and the atmospheric ancient walled village his young protagonist is fated to protect. “Enormously watchable and effective. It is also wonderfully distinctive: a . . . cross-cultural gem” (Grant Watson, FictionMachine).